News

Fracht Australia News - September 2018

1/9/2018

 

“If you don’t take care of your body, where else do you plan to live in the future?”

                                                   Anonymous 

AROUND THE WORLD

• USA: Fracht USA has a new family member. The latest acquisition of the Fracht group is the New York based MARIBEL & DK LOGISTICS. This privately owned company was founded in 1975 and has a strong focus on logistics and brokerage for the food industry.
• ITALY: The widely reported collapse of the Morandi Bridge connecting Genova with the airport and the western part of the town including the Voltri Terminal Europe (VTE) caused considerable logistics interruptions and congestion on alternative routes. Compasso Junction, the freight station from which shunting to Genova Old Port Terminals normally takes place is temporarily out of service and consequently block-trains to / from Genova Old Port Terminals are not active. A number of containers to Australia were short-shipped as a result of this unfortunate situation.
• HOLLAND: The slot restrictions at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport continued to have a negative effect on operators of full freighters and overall import and export cargo volumes in the first half of 2018. While there has been an increase in carriers’ belly cargo the volume carried in full freighters declined considerably in Schiphol which is one of Europe’s most important air cargo hubs.
• UK: Forwarders still face significant problems at the port of Felixstowe following the introduction of a new terminal operating system.  According to Robert Keen, director general of BIFA (British International Freight Association) the problems are caused by shipping lines cancelling calls, or operating a cut-and-run policy where the ship leaves before all containers that are booked are loaded or discharged. Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom.
• GERMANY: The port of Hamburg is continuing to lose ground to its North European container competitors. Throughput in the port declined by 2.7% in the first half of 2018 compared to 2017. The decline is attributed to the failure to push through the Elbe deepening. After a wait of 17 years it is hoped that the planning permission will finally be granted at the end of the year. Antwerp, the main beneficiary of this situation, announced a record half year result with container volumes up 8.3%.  Rotterdam achieved an increase of 6.2%
• INDONESIA: One of the first international tasks for our brand new Prime Minister Scott Morrison is to travel to Indonesia to sign a new Free Trade Agreement. Little details of the FTA has so far been revealed but it’s bound to be good news for our exporters and imports from Indonesia will probably be duty free in the not too distant future.

 

AIRFREIGHT NEWS

• QANTAS LAUNCHED A NEW SEASONAL FREIGHTER SERVICE FROM DARWIN to Hong Kong. The new weekly 767-300F freighter departing on Sundays will provide capacity to carry up to 50 tonnes of fresh produce as well as general cargo. The rotation is Sydney – Darwin - Hong Kong – Sydney.
• ACCORDING TO THE LATEST IATA STATISTICS growth of international airfreight has slowed in June 2018 compared to earlier months of the year. Year to date figures for the first half of 2018 compared to 2017 are still quite strong with 5 per cent increase for international airfreight and +5.1 per cent for the Asia Pacific region. Freight Load Factors in the Asia Pacific region were considerably higher than the rest of the world. This is one of the reasons why it is sometimes hard to find space for airfreight to Australia. Some of the major airlines reported strong volumes also for July.
• SINGAPORE AIRLINES WILL LAUNCH NON-STOP SERVICES between Singapore and New York on 18 October 2018. The daily flights will be operated using the new A350-900ULR.

 

SEAFREIGHT NEWS

• ANL ANNOUNCED THAT THEY INTEND TO BRING LARGER 8,500 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) ships to Australia in September. In the past ships of that size were unsuitable for Melbourne because they are too big to fit under the Westgate Bridge but now they can access VICT at Webb Dock.
• DECLINING WATER LEVELS ON THE RIVER RHINE caused by the long hot summer resulted in increased costs and delays for some European shippers. This affected mainly shippers from Austria, Switzerland, France and Southern Germany. Containers by barge account for about 35 per cent of cargo via Antwerp and 50 per cent via Rotterdam.
• ALPHALINER’S CONTAINERSHIP IDLE TONNAGE HAS RECORDED A BIG SPIKE IN VESSELS CONSIGNED TO LAY-UP. The idle tonnage fleet has risen to 341,000 TEUs which is approx. 1.6 per cent of the global fleet. This is very unusual in the middle of the peak season. Usually lay-ups start increasing in the slack season around October.
• THE CHINA COSCO SHIPPING GROUP HAS ACQUIRED A MAJORITY SHAREHOLDING IN OOCL.  They announced that there will be a clear dual-brand strategy between COSCO and OOCL which will also maintain its separate listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
• CMA CGM MODIFIED ITS NORTH EUROPE ROTATION OF THE NEMO SERVICE.  From 25 August onwards Rotterdam is the first port of departure followed by London Gateway, Hamburg, Le Havre, Fos sur Mer, Genoa and Damietta. This means that transit times from Rotterdam to Australia will now be a couple of days longer.
• MSC RECEIVED AN AWARD FOR SLOWER SAILING TO PROTECT WHALES outside San Francisco Bay. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Cordell Bank and Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries honoured MSC and some other companies for their high degree of cooperation with their vessel speed reduction requests.  This will improve air quality, reduce risks of fatal whale strikes and protect whales in National Marine Sanctuaries.
• MAERSK PLANS A ONE OFF TRIAL OF THE POLAR ROUTE from east to west passing the Bering Strait. The 3,600 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) “Venta Maersk”, a new ice class vessel, is expected to depart Vladivostok in early September, make a stop in Busan and then make the long journey to Saint Petersburg, arriving at the end of the month. Russian authorities will provide ice breaker assistance if required. The trial will enable to explore the operational feasibility of container shipping through the Northern sea route.